Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Portrait of Douglas Stewart (1913–1985), poet and writer c. 1970s

Portrait of Douglas Stewart (1913–1985), poet and writer c. 1970s

Silver gelatin photograph

PXE 780

Presented by Meg Stewart, 1989 

Douglas Stewart, pictured here at work in his study, had a strong impact on Australian literature in the first half of the twentieth century in his role as editor and literary critic. Stewart was editor of the Bulletin’s ‘Red Page’, its literary section, for 20 years. He also worked for Angus and Robertson as an editor and literary adviser, supporting the work of writers and poets like Judith Wright, James McCauley, Francis Webb and David Campbell. 

In 1948, Stewart published his first book of literary criticism, The Flesh and the Spirit: An Outlook on Literature, and in the 1950s, extended his reputation as an editor and man of letters with the publication of two influential and highly popular anthologies compiled in collaboration with the writer Nancy Keesing, Australian Bush Ballads (1955) and a revised edition of A. B. Paterson's Old Bush Songs and Rhymes of Colonial Times (1957).

Stewart’s poetic style and thematic material was varied, ranging from nostalgic depictions of New Zealand and thoughts on a variety of Australian landscapes, to tragic historical events, such as the Glencoe massacre and Scott's ill-fated expedition to Antarctica.

Stewart’s poetry is in the HSC Standard English text list. Here is the first stanza from Lady Feeding the Cats:

Shuffling along in her broken shoes from the slums,

A blue-eyed lady showing the weather’s stain,

Her long dress green and black like a pine in the rain,

Her bonnet much bedraggled, daily she comes

Uphill past the Moreton Bays and the smoky gums

With a sack of bones on her back and a song in her brain

To feed those outlaws prowling about the Domain,

Those furtive she-cats and those villainous toms.